


Lay my heart down with the rest at her feet

by ArrenEmris



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Klaus being queen of drama, Klaus is a trash for Caroline, while Caroline is not amused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-19 06:49:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22006870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArrenEmris/pseuds/ArrenEmris
Summary: Klaus Mikaelson and his dramatic, weird, dangerous and deathly ways to woe the love of his life.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 11
Kudos: 59
Collections: Klaroline Gift Exchange — New Year's Day





	Lay my heart down with the rest at her feet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eternal_optimist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternal_optimist/gifts).



> Hello my giftee! I had fun while writing this for you and hope you'll have fun too. I played a bit with things you like and tried to add Kol's sassiness, Klaus's murder happy persona and since you love original!Caroline... Well, i tried to play with that too. Hope you'd like this and I wish you a very happy New Year!

December turned out to be a blizzard. White hats adorned heads and stone gargoyles with wings guarded the Mikaelsons’ family castle; while snow, deathly pale and beautiful, pressed cold down onto a small town in the valley.

“I think he's fascinated by her,” remarked Kol, who was looking through a tall lancet window, bored. His eyes, covered with a magical haze, watched as two people walked along the path of a snowy garden that was located at the other end of the town. A strong gust of wind pulled the hood off a girl to scatter golden curls over her shoulders, making her laugh, and causing her companion to rush over awkwardly to help her. “You know, he looks like a big puppy who longs for her to throw him a bone ...”   
  
“Which means I’d love to break his bones and tear them out of his body, one after another,” Klaus replied grimly, not looking up from the scroll that he had been studying for the past two months. “Don't you think Mr. Lockwood has spent enough time here already, brother?”   
  
“On the contrary, the way he infuriates you dilutes my boredom. He really makes you nervous, doesn’t he?” Kol said, not bothering to hide a grin. “Oh, you should see how solemnly he holds her hand … and, ah, - Lady Forbes just waved, it seems to me.” 

Holding out, Kol lets the comment dangle a little, gauging his brother’s reaction out of the corner of his eye, only to then burst out laughing when Klaus threw something into a fireplace. “She loves to mock you, just admit it.”   
  
“She loves to test my patience,” Klaus growled. Black veins appeared under his eyes and Kol grunted, returning to the table to look at the scroll with curiosity. The two of them had to return their mother from the other world and then kill her again in order to get what they needed. “She’s refused to talk to me since her birthday.” 

  
“If you had sent me your ex’s head as a present for my birthday, I would not speak to you either.”

“She doubted the seriousness of my intentions,” he said as he overturned another glass of bourbon. Remembering his brother’s temper, Kol took a couple of careful steps back just in case Klaus couldn’t manage to keep his sharpness to himself, not at all surprised that his obsession with the blonde hellion had taken such a drastic turn.

  
  
***   
  
_ Two months earlier, October. _

_   
_   
The reception at the Forbes house was not distinguished by pomp or extravagance, but Klaus did not intend to miss it. Nor did he intend to miss another opportunity to see Caroline, whose sharp tongue and lively temperament amused him. His return to this small town, lost among rocks and forests, and once considered his homeland, was not such a bad idea, he thought, finding her in the crowd by following the sound of her mischievous laughter.   
  
Caroline Forbes was a brave little love who had found him in the middle of a stuffy summer. 

She came across him in the heart of the forest, when the smells of juniper, sage and clover made even immortals dizzy. She was not afraid when she saw him with blood on his face, with inhuman eyes blinking back at her and feral fangs curled over his lips; instead, she tried to kill him by sticking an aspen stake in his chest, which amused Klaus immensely. 

From that day on, he did not let her out of his sight. She was constantly challenging him, continually trying to send him to the other side in some sophisticated way by using tricks she’d obtained from mossy books. Somehow he had completely missed the moment when she had settled in his thoughts not only as a creature that could dispel his eternal boredom, but as someone to whom he could present the gift of power over time.

  
Hybrid that he was, guided only by his own selfish impulses, wanted to have Caroline for himself. Not for a while, but for an eternity. Not only as a lover, but as an equal--his immortal bride.   
  
Her birthday was at the beginning of October, when everything turned to pure gold and the autumn forest rustled with game that was rife for the taking, and Klaus believed it to be the best time and place to offer her the gift of eternity. Autumn symbolized the triumph over basic human concepts like age, time, and it would only enhance the importance of his gift to her.   
  
“Mr. Mikaelson.” Her smile became a little wary when she saw him, but there was no fear in her gestures or behavior. “I hope you have not decided to make dinner of one of my guests?” 

He touched her palm with his lips, and feeling her pulse speed up, he gave her a dimpled smile. “I would never dare to insult you or ruin your birthday, Caroline.”   
  
“You ate a pastry chef last week,” she remarked in an indignant tone, slowly removing her hand out of his grasp, “so you almost succeeded!”   
  
“I offer my deepest apologies.” 

He barely managed to hold back his chuckle, for it was painfully hilarious how she scolded him for murder as if he were a naughty child; yet, at the same time, was not afraid of the violence he could enact if he so chose. These contradictions in her personality completely discouraged and fascinated him.   
  
“It is not funny,” she snorted, finally turning away from him. “I did not expect to see you today.”   
  
“How could I miss a chance to wish you a happy birthday?” Touching her elbow lightly, “Will you walk around garden with me, Caroline? I want to give you my present.”

She looked at him suspiciously for one, two seconds, but then nodded in response.   
  
They walked in tandem for a few minutes, silently, but once they disappeared from prying eyes and into a small maze, Klaus stopped to press her against the green hedge. Her blue eyes widened in amazement and she opened her mouth, tried to say something, but he placed a finger against her delicate lips and shook his head.   
  
“Don’t be afraid, Caroline. I won’t harm you,” he said quietly as he leaned closer, enraptured by the blue veins beating from her neck. “I don’t bite - won’t bite - unless you ask me to do so.”   
  
“However, since today is your birthday, I want to give you a gift that will allow you to celebrate another thousand birthdays...a gift that will allow you to rule over time itself, to blossom the potential which I already see alive inside of you. Be my immortal bride, sweetheart, and you can have everything--all that you desire and deserve.”   
  
Caroline froze in his hands, not knowing what to say in response to such an offer. Taking advantage of her confusion, Klaus bent down, breathing in the sweet aroma of freesia and bitter oranges, to touch his hot lips to her cool cheeks, savoring the feeling of her silky skin against his mouth.   
  
“Is it possible …” she breathed in a trembling voice with her fists clenched, “to make such a scandalous proposal when you already have one immortal bride? Isn’t the red-haired lady de Martel ... isn’t she your bride?”   
  
“Accept my offer and I will give you Aurora’s head on our family silver,” Klaus grinned, anticipating an imminent victory.   
  
“And how long has she been your bride?” 

Without sensing the trap, Klaus answered her question, and in response, earned a poke in the chest that was accompanied by an indignant look. 

“So...what you’re saying is that after a couple of centuries, you will meet another doll face and offer her my head in exchange for your hand and marriage?” Shoving him away from her then, she turned on her heels and walked away with a, “Take your offer and family silver and go to hell, Mr. Mikaelson!”

  
That same night, she received a box from Klaus with Aurora’s head, which he’d intended to be taken as a sign of his most serious intentions. After Kol called him  _ an idiot who does not understand women _ , Caroline refused to talk to him. Worse, when she saw him on the streets of town now, she lifted her nose defiantly, immediately crossing to the other side of the street so as to avoid him. 

Klaus did not know what to do with this unbearably proud woman: to love her or to kill her.

  
  
***

  
Kol dummed his fingers on the countertop, “So now you’ve decided that she should be turned into an original vampire. Which, after the way you behaved with poor little Aurora, may be the only thing that’ll convince her that when you grow bored of her, you won’t kill her, too.”

“She won’t bore me. She will be the death of me, that’s for sure, but she won’t bore me.”   
  
“Rebekah will definitely be happy about your little obsession. And I don’t even want to know what you’ll do with this tiara.”   
  
“I'll send her an invitation to the Christmas ball,” Klaus said as he examined the tiara inlaid with pearls and sapphires. “She will not be able to ignore me then. Or at the very least, she will have to come here to return the tiara.  There is a certain symbolism in this, don't you think? To give her this at Christmastime. Though I prefer when we called it Yuletide.”

"Or you do have a tendency to be dramatic,” Kol muttered under his breath.

“So a Yuletide ball it is then!”   
  
One thing was for sure: the balls at the Mikaelsons’ castle were never boring and this one could be truly special.

  
  
***

  
  
Hundreds, if not thousands, of red beeswax candles flickered in the candelabra, giving the luxurious ballroom an even more mysterious appearance. 

Caroline shrugged a little, feeling out of place here. She suspected that most of Mikaelson’s guests, who were dressed in silk and jewelry, were anything but human. Many of them exhibited dexterous movements and inhuman grace, had eyes with vertical cat-like pupils, or wore outlandish jewels and amulets. However, this didn’t scare her as much as it attracted her, provoking her curiosity. She was almost delighted, reveling in the spectacle and splendor.

It was spoiled only by  _ his _ presence. Klaus’s. The dark king of all these creatures.

Caroline was desperate to avoid taking in his arrogant physiognomy in this room, to give him back this stupid tiara, which was clutched in her hands, and leave.

In order to further annoy him, though, she was accompanied here by Tyler, who looked anxiously toward the full moon but escorted her without complaint. Klaus’s fierce, reproachful look was her reward as her escort swirled her through the dance. While Lockwood stepped on her feet a couple of times, she was determined to annoy this impudent and ill-bred bastard, who had sent her the head of his ex-bride — she had nightmares after almost a month! — and she would get her payback. 

But it seemed Caroline had underestimated him because months of neglect had pushed Klaus over the edge. When the dance ended, he appeared behind her and measured up Tyler with such an icy look that he lowered his head and scurried off to a corner immediately, effectively abandoning her to the company of this enraged and jealous monster. 

Caroline, however, was not taken aback by his behavior. She simply stared back at him with the same stubborn look.   
  
“I'm glad you deigned to attend my ball,” Klaus said softly, trying to pull himself together. He touched her hand in front of dozens of guests without embarrassment, without shying away.   
  
“You left me no other choice,” she muttered.   
  
“All I did was present you with a worthy gift. Only one that you are fit to wear. This crown fits you incredibly, Caroline,” he purred, “and I have reserved it exclusively for your head, and your head alone.”   
  
She scowled, her chest heaving with indignation - because the nerve he had, _ the nerve _ ! Half of her wanted to pierce his black heart with another stake while the other half was dizzied by the languor one look, one glance, from him caused. It felt as if her mind and body were bewitched by his sweet poison, that she could no longer escape his magnetism…

Caught in his gaze, held reverently in his arms, the orchestra plucked another tune. Klaus carried them into an elegant dance, and although his touch was far from innocent, there was a tangible ‘zing’ between them that made her feel as if anything was possible, that nibbled away at the world’s human framework until it could be forgotten and discarded. After all, how could she think of the ordinary, the mundane, whenever she saw how shamelessly some were staring at the throats of their dance partners?

Caroline wanted to look away but she was enchanted by the spectacle. She trembled at the sound of his whisper against the shell of her ear. It was as if a knot was tied between them, pulling, tugging in her lower abdomen.   
  
“This may not be the most rainbow-colored world, Caroline,” he said as he spun her back toward him and pressed her tightly to his chest, her heartbeat a sonata against his shirt, “but it has its own beauty. Only those who know how to watch and listen will see its intricacies, will taste the wonder it has to offer, will hear the years flip past like the pages of a tome--it’s a world in desperate need of a queen.”

  
In one sharp step, he turned her around to face him; and Caroline, a little out of breath, put her hand on his shoulder, as if afraid that if she met the intense gaze of his beryl eyes, her will and principles would disappear like morning fog.

“You should not be afraid of me, love. Just agree and you will have everything, all that you’ve yearned for in your dreams…”

The hall, shrouded in the light of flickering candlelight, gave way to a darkness that was caught in the scarlet moon reflected on the windows. But even here, along this precipice of darkness, Klaus's eyes lit up with a feverish light, warming her to the bone and moving her feet of their own accord. The worm of doubt that had seized Caroline for a long time subsided, pushing her to step into the abyss, ushering her toward him on tip-toes to press a kiss onto his lips.

  
“Good.” Though it was only one word, it was sealed with a kiss that agreed to all his pleas and promises of eternal grandeur.

  
... Caroline’s skin was silver in the light of the stars and the moon, and Klaus could not tear himself away from her, not even if a white oak grew through his heart. Her blood, which seemed almost black against her alabaster skin, tasted much sweeter than he’d imagined it could be. 

Her eyes sparkled like the sapphires in her tiara — as he had promised, she was the only one to wear it — when he offered her a nip from his neck. She reveled in the taste of his ancient blood, stubbornly demanding more. And more. And more...   
  
What could he say? He always knew that there was a beautiful monster hiding in her somewhere.


End file.
